The church and the world

The schism between the Greek and Latin churches coincided chronologically with a surge of Christian missionary activity in northern and eastern Europe. Both sides contributed to the resultant expansion of Christianity but used different methods. The West imposed a Latin liturgy on the new converts and thus made Latin the only vehicle of Christian civilization and a major instrument of ecclesiastical unity. The East, meanwhile, as noted above, accepted from the start the principle of translating both the Scriptures and the liturgy into the spoken tongues of the converted nations. Christianity thus became integrated into the indigenouscultures of the Slavic nations, and the universal Orthodox church evolved as a fellowship of national churches rather than as a centralized body.

The Christian East, in spite of the integrating forces of Christian Hellenism, was always culturally pluralistic: since the first centuries of Christianity, Syrians, Armenians, Georgians, Copts, Ethiopians, and other ethnic groups used their own languages in worship and developed their own liturgical traditions. Even though, by the time of the Greek missions to the Slavs, the Byzantine church was almost monolithically Greek, the idea of a liturgy in the vernacular was still quite alive, as is demonstrated by the use of the Slavic language by the missionaries led by Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century.

The Turkish conquest of the Middle East and of the Balkans (15th century) interrupted the missionary expansion of the Orthodox church. The expansion of Islam into formerly Christian territories in the Middle Ages meant that the Christians could survive only in enclaves and were legally excluded from proselytizing among Muslims.

The Russian church alone was able to continue the tradition of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and it did so almost without interruption until the modern period. In the 14th century St. Stephen of Perm translated the Scriptures and the liturgy into the language of a Finnish tribe of the Russian north and became the first bishop of the Zyrians. The expansion of the Russian Empire in Asia was accompanied by efforts of evangelization that—sometimes in opposition to the avowed policy of Russianization practiced by the government of St. Petersburg—followed the Cyrillo-Methodian pattern of translation. This method was utilized among the Tatars of the Volga in the 16th century and among the various peoples of Siberia throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1714 a mission was established in China. In 1794 monks of the Valamo Abbey reached Alaska; their spiritual leader, the monk Herman, was canonized by the Orthodox church in 1970. Missions in the Islamic sphere resumed to the extent that by the year 1903 the liturgy was celebrated in more than 20 languages in the region of Kazan.

The Alaskan mission was under the direction of a modest priest sent to America from eastern Siberia, Ivan Veniaminov. During his long stay in America, first as a priest, then as a bishop (1824–68), he engaged in the work of translating the Gospels and the liturgy into the languages of the Aleuts, the Tlingit Indians, and the Eskimos of Alaska.

The missionary tradition has also been revived in Greece. Various Greek associations are dedicated to the pursuit of missionary work in Africa, where sizable indigenous groups have recently joined the Orthodox church.

Orthodoxy and other Christians

Since the failure of the unionist Council of Florence (1439), there have been no official attempts to restore unity between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. In 1484 an Orthodox council declared that Roman Catholics desiring to join the Orthodox church were to be received through chrismation (or confirmation). In the 18th century, however, the relations deteriorated to the point that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople decreed that all Roman Catholic and Protestantsacraments, including baptism, were totally unauthentic. A parallel attitude prevailed in Russia until the 17th century, when large numbers of Eastern Rite Roman Catholics (“Uniates”) were received back into Orthodoxy by a simple confession of faith, and this practice was adopted in the acceptance of individual Roman Catholics as well.

Various attempts at rapprochement with the Anglican Communion, especially since the 19th century, were generally more fruitful. Several private associations of ecclesiastics and theologians promoted understanding between Eastern Orthodoxy and the “Anglo-Catholic” branch of Anglicanism. The Orthodox, however, were reticent in taking any formal step toward reunion before a satisfactory statement on the content of Anglican faith, taken as a whole, could be obtained.

The contemporary ecumenical movement has from its inception involved the Orthodox church. Eastern Orthodox representatives took part in the various Life and Work (practical) and Faith and Order (theological) conferences from the very beginning of the 20th century. One by one the various independent Orthodox churches joined the World Council of Churches, created in 1948. Often, and especially at the beginning of their participation, Orthodox delegates had recourse to separate statements, which made clear to the Protestant majorities that, in the Orthodox view, Christian unity was attainable only in the full unity of the primitive apostolic faith from which the Orthodox church had never departed. This attitude of the Orthodox could be understood only if it made sufficiently clear that the truth—which historic Eastern Orthodoxy claims to preserve—is maintained by the Holy Spirit in the church as a whole and not by any individual or any group of individuals on their own right and also that the unity of Christians—which is the goal of the ecumenical movement—does not imply cultural, intellectual, or ritual uniformity but rather a mystical fellowship in the fullness of truth as expressed in eucharistic communion.

The ecumenical movement, especially since the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), is today much wider than the formal membership of the World Council of Churches. The principle of conciliarism and the readiness of the popes to appear publicly as equals of Eastern patriarchs—as in the meetings between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I in the 1960s—represent significant moves in the direction of a better understanding between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Pope John Paul II sought to improve relations with various Orthodox churches, and his successor, Benedict XVI, met with Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul in 2006.

Inspire your inbox –
Sign up for daily fun facts about this day in history, updates, and special offers.

By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Click here to view our Privacy Notice. Easy unsubscribe links are provided in every email.

Thank you for subscribing!

Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox.